Smokeball

Smokeball legal AI is built for what the company calls “people-law”: practice areas such as family law and personal injury, where small firms work directly with individuals rather than corporations. Smokeball itself is practice management software that has been running since 2013, and its AI assistant, Archie, works inside each matter rather than in a separate chat window.

The name is a nod to Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company, the 1893 English contract case in which an ordinary customer held a company to its promise. Smokeball launched in Chicago, expanded to Australia in 2016 and opened a London office in 2023, and it says more than 34,000 legal professionals use it. The founders, Hunter Steele, Jane Oxley and Bart Vadala, still run the company.

What Smokeball legal AI actually does

Archie is Smokeball’s AI matter assistant, added in 2024. Because it sits inside the matter, there is nothing to upload and nothing to explain: it already knows the documents, emails, deadlines and tasks on the file. You can ask what has happened, what is missing or what comes next, and the answer arrives with the file behind it. Every finding cites its source, and anything ambiguous is flagged.

Archie can summarise a document or a whole matter, including meetings, deadlines and tasks, all linked back to the source. It can compare documents to catch conflicting terms or discrepancies, and it suggests next steps as the matter changes. For legal questions, it surfaces jurisdiction-aware guidance from LawY, with the option of having a lawyer verify the answer.

Archie also works where lawyers already spend their day. In Outlook it summarises email threads and drafts replies from the matter. In Word it sits in the sidebar to answer questions, draft and make precise edits. Playbooks review documents against rules your firm defines, and Archie Apps add specialist tools, such as bank statement analysis, legal chronologies and audio transcription, plus partner apps from CaseMark, Novo AI and Supio for medical chronologies, deposition summaries and demand letters.

The practice management side

Underneath Archie is a full practice management system with very deep Microsoft Word and Outlook integration, which is the main reason many firms choose it. Time can track itself through AutoTime, documents fill automatically from matter data, and client emails file to the right matter. TemplateLab gives you more than 20,000 automated forms and templates, and FamilyPro adds tools for family law property division.

There is client intake and lead management, matter and document management, a shared calendar synced with Outlook, tasks and workflows, a client portal, eSignature through InfoTrack and eFiling. The billing side covers time and expense tracking, invoicing, trust accounting, online payments with Smokeball Payments, and firm reporting on profitability and staff activity. There are mobile apps for iPhone and Android, and more than 180 partner integrations in the Smokeball marketplace.

Smokeball pricing and plans

Smokeball pricing is not published. There are four plans, and each one needs a quote:

• Bill: legal billing only, with invoicing, time and expense tracking, online payments and trust accounting.
• Boost: adds browser-based case management, calendar and tasks, Microsoft 365 integration, a client portal, eSignature and eFiling.
• Grow: adds the native desktop app, practice area templates and calculators, advanced document automation and email management.
• Prosper+: adds firm insights, lead management, advanced intake, custom workflows and profitability reporting, with AutoTime, Intake and Workflows included.

Smokeball legal AI in the form of Archie is a paid add-on on Boost, Grow and Prosper+, not part of the base price. Your quote depends on the number of users, the plan, the contract term and any add-ons. There is no public free trial; instead, you book a demo. See the official Smokeball pricing page to compare plans and request a quote.

Security and privacy

Smokeball is certified to ISO 27001:2022, is independently penetration-tested every year, and says it is aligned with HIPAA and the CCPA. It hosts on Amazon Web Services, encrypts sensitive data with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2 or higher in transit, and supports multi-factor authentication. Archie runs under zero-data-retention agreements, firm data is never shared with third parties for AI training, and Archie only works within the matter you are in, visible only to staff assigned to it.

Who it’s for

Smokeball legal AI suits solo lawyers and small to mid-sized firms in people-law practice areas, especially firms that live in Word and Outlook and want time tracked automatically. It is available in the US, Australia and the UK. If you want to see prices before talking to sales, or try the software on your own first, the lack of public pricing and a free trial will be a drawback.

To weigh it up, browse the other AI legal tools in our directory, see our list of AI for lawyers, or put Smokeball side by side with Clio and MyCase on the Compare AI tools page.

You can book a demo on the official Smokeball website.